Rebbit was great for troubleshooting tech issues. Subreddits like r/thinkpad r/linux r/homelab etc were very useful it figuring out weird tech issues when google finds nothing useful.
i feel that this is in no small part due to techy folks feeling more inclined to figure out these federated alternatives. it's still not very intuitive for the average person imo
I haven't been active in the IT world on years, but as a veteran of Usenet from back in the 90's, I've been enjoying how much this distributed setup feels like that; And in no small part because it's not as easily accessible to the non-techies.
I also feel like the comparison to a "sugar rush" is a good one. Reddit was becoming too much, it was so overrun with bots and trolls. This place feels more sane and less run down.
When my day job was tech, I learned quickly you either learn as much as quickly as you can or you stagnate and don't get anywhere. Guess thats spilled over to my personal life too.